Really made me wonder if vampirism is just a metaphor for homosexuality? Or outsider-ness in general.

(Incidentally, the copy of this book above is not my first copy, it’s my second. I actually picked this up at a salvation army for a buck and would you believe it but this is actually a first printing paperback. What’s curious is that because it’s a first printing paperback it not only pre-dates one of King’s children, but also pre-dates his super-stardom. After all, in later years the ‘Stephen King’ name would go prominently on the cover of all his work. Clearly, with this printing, he hadn’t yet achieved that ubiquity.)